The present invention relates to a motor-vehicle workshop. More particularly this invention concerns such a workshop which is portable.
A standard portable car workshop is made using two modules each having the dimensions and shape of a standard shipping container. After the two modules are delivered to the site, each has one of its longitudinal side walls removed to open it up and they are put together with their open sides facing each other to form a large interior area having the volume of the two containers combined. One or both of the containers are normally provided with a roll-up door for entry and egress, and various standard equipment may be deployed in each of them.
While working with such a standardized module makes it easy to handle and ship the unassembled workshop, the resultant structure has several disadvantages. The main one is that it is insufficiently tall to allow the vehicle to be raised on a lift inside the structure so that a worker can get underneath the vehicle being worked on. Furthermore the largely empty structures represent dead freight in that they are large but light, and a major element of each one, that is one full-length longitudinal wall, must be removed at the erection site and stored if the shop is to be disassembled at a later date and shipped off to another location.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved portable motor-vehicle workshop.
Another object is the provision of such an improved portable motor-vehicle workshop which overcomes the above-given disadvantages, that is which can be erected easily, which can accommodate a car raised on a lift, and which takes up very little space when knocked down.
A portable motor-vehicle workshop has according to the invention a plurality of rigid rectangular I-beam reinforced floor panels, bolts securing the floor panels together to form a planar horizontal floor, and a plurality of portals each having a pair of spaced vertical lower posts having lower ends secured to the floor, respective angled connector beams extending inward and upward at acute angles from upper ends of the lower posts, respective upper posts extending vertically from upper ends of the angled beams, and a horizontal connector beam extending between upper ends of the respective upper posts. A plurality of panels are bolted to the portals and enclose a space above the floor. A lift on the floor can raise a vehicle up between the upper posts.
The wall panels can be made of aluminum and plastic and include transparent portions and/or windows and/or skylights. They rigidify the structure greatly once connected to the portals, producing a very stiff and stable building.
According to the invention end walls are provided at least one of which is provided with a roll-up vehicle door. This roll-up door has a width equal at most to a horizontal spacing between the upper posts of the portals. A standard door can also be provided in the end panel, normally next to the roll-up vehicle door.
Each floor panel in accordance with the invention comprises an annular inwardly open C-section channel, a plurality of parallel I-beams fixed to the channel, a wooden plate secured to the I-beams within the channel, and a wear surface on an outside face of the wooden plate. The wooden plate can be made of oriented-strand board or plywood and can be held underneath one of the flanges of the C-section edge channel. Atop the plywood plates is normally a synthetic-resin covering, preferably with a nubbed surface giving good traction. Normally with 4 cm thick floor plates it is possible to bolt most equipment, for instance a tire-balancing machine, right to the floor, although the vehicle lift itself is normally secured to the I-beams or to plates welded to the I-beams.
At least some of the floor panels according to the invention are formed with an upwardly open trough covered by a grate. A conduit system connected to the trough runs into an oil skimmer outside the workshop connected to the conduit system. Thus any water getting into the portable shop or any liquids draining off or from the vehicles therein can be trapped and conducted out.